Our Battles
by Nepeace
Summary: She sat there leaning against the wall, her rifle an M-4 Carbine, clutched in her hands as she waited for something to happen either an action that required her to act or an order. 6 Chapters in total - Jenny and Ziva friendship fic - Pre NCIS
1. Chapter 1

Title: Our battles

**Title: Our battles **

**Author:** Nepeace ( aka Angelique )

**Email: **

**Fandom: **NCIS

**Pairings: **None really although there is a mentioning of Jen Shepard/Leroy Jethro Gibbs ( but that is all it is a mentioning, no pairing )

**Warnings: **Well there is a little bit of violence but nothing too graphic.

**Challenge: **Chinese Fic Exchange – NCIS Fanfiction Addiction

**Criteria: **_SET 2 (Janie)_

_**Prompt #1: GENERAL:**__ The Secret of Jen's Obsession with LeGrenouille. After 9/11/2001, but before Jen becomes Director. ("Twilight" 2005) Jen & Ziva are on an Anti-Terrorism Operation which involves Le Grenouille. Focus is on the cause, so it can be a case file and/or ship, but doesn't have to be._

_**NOTE:**__ I'm open to any and everything, sex wise, as long as it's consentual. H/C of our heroes is fine, but no whumping, maiming or killing. Do whatever you want to the bad guys._

**Ratings: **Whatever comes after PG-13

**Words: **6692words

**Summary: **She sat there leaning against the wall, her rifle an M-4 Carbine, clutched in her hands as she waited for something to happen either an action that required her to act or an order. And then all of the sudden everything seemed to happen at the same time, there was shooting and explosions.

**Author's note: **This one is for Janie, I hope you like it and I hope that it is somewhat like you expected it to be. But at the same time I hope that I was able to surprise you. Thanks to **Assemble** for beta'ing thos fic for me.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned NCIS, I would not be sitting here right now typing this disclaimer I would be directing a new episode. But since I am sitting here typing this I highly doubt that I own anything.

**Our Battles**

Jen Shepard was kneeling down, her back leaning against the cold concrete wall behind her. She tried to catch her breath while she watched her surroundings, intensely taking in each detail. She sat there waiting, anticipating for what was to come.

The adrenaline had been building in her body since she'd gotten out of the car and made her way through the woods. She rested patiently against the wall. She held her Sig in her hand, ready to use it, hoping that she wouldn't need it. But these were terrorists and arms dealers they were dealing with. They wouldn't give up without a fight. Thoughtless arms dealers who didn't care who would be killed or wounded with their guns, ammunition and bombs; as long as it wasn't their family that suffered, they would sell to the highest bidder.

She peeked around the corner, focusing on the scene in front of her. She could see a small airport, hardly big enough to even be called airport, with only one landing strip and a couple of buildings.

It was mostly used for storage, with only one security guard, who, since all he did was stare at a television in the back room, could hardly be called that.

It was in the middle of nowhere, but good enough for terrorists to use for their deals. Her Anti Terrorism Task Force received intel that there would be a transfer in one of the following nights - the details had been a little vague, but at the same time important enough not to ignore them. Especially because the intel told them that LeGrenouille, an arms dealer, was concluding a deal with a militant organization. Which organization was unclear - there were several that fit the profile and one of them was Hamas.

But each one of them was well worth staking the airport for, even if it took days before anything would happen. Since 9-11 a lot had changed in the world, and the work of the Anti Terrorism Task Force ( ATTF ) had become one of the most important tasks when it came to security. It was a team with members from countries all over the world, uniting their powers to rid the world of terrorists. Jen Shepard had joined the team right after 9-11, and her knowledge of Europe and work as an undercover agent had been an asset to the task force.

They had been staking out the airport for the past two days; so far nothing had happened.

Each time a full team had been ready for action, along with a back up team, and each morning they went back to the base camp. But to her this night had been different, it had been eerily quiet all night, too quiet - it was as if cataclysm was waiting to happen. But so far nothing had happened, apart from the regular security guard that moved around every now and then to check up on the situation at the airport. Which he had not been doing that thoroughly to begin with, since he had not noticed that there had been ATTF teams moving around outside for the past couple of nights.

She searched for eye contact with her partner, Christopher. She finally found him hiding behind a truck which was parked about 100 ft away from her own position. He was on the ground lying flat on his stomach as he searched the buildings for any movement. He then prepared setting up the sniper riffle so he would be ready when he was needed and it took a little while before he noticed that Jen was looking at him. A couple of hand signals were made and she signed back that she hadn't seen anything suspicious. She refrained from using the radio, because it would make too much noise, and if they could use hand signs between them it really was the better way. She moved her position forward, partly to stretch her legs, as she had been sitting here for way too long against the cold concrete wall.

She sat there leaning against the wall, her rifle an M-4 Carbine, clutched in her hands as she waited for something to happen - either an action that required her to act or an order. And then all of the sudden everything seemed to happen at the same time, the sky lit up with a huge explosion followed by a lot of shooting. Jen didn't know where to go, and she couldn't see her team members due to the smoke. She lost track of where Christopher was, even though she assumed that he was still underneath the truck. She looked frantically for a sign of help or safety, and when she couldn't find it she tried to reach out through their communication systems. But all she got back through her earwig was silence interrupted with cracks and distorted sounds. Jen didn't have much time to think, and running out into the open area was one of the most dangerous things she could do, but she didn't really have a choice. Only at the other side of the road were there buildings that would give her some places to hide or at least take cover. On this side of the road she had nothing.

It only was only about 80 ft until she would be safe.

"Chris! Chris, can you cover me?" She asked one more time, and except for the shooting and the occasional shouting, she couldn't hear a thing. Not anything that would help her at least.

Her eyes searched for a glimpse of Christopher, but she couldn't find him. She frantically looked around, squinting her eyes and trying to find the shooters. She could define where some shooters where hiding, but she also instinctively knew that they where too far away to shoot her down or for her to shoot at them. She closed her eyes for a second and did a quick prayer before she got up and ran across the open road to the other side. She hid herself in the dark shadows of the building and waited to see if something would happen.

It was silent for a couple of seconds and it seemed as if nothing had happened and it had all been a bad dream. She could even hear a bird chirping in a tree nearby. Then everything was covered in a red glow and a bomb exploded she hit her head against the wall behind her and her view blurred. She slumped down the wall and laid there motionless, her eyes closed as blood trickled along her cheekbone and her jaw.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

All she could hear was the pounding in her head, she tried to move but felt that she was being held down. She fought against what was holding her back but it was only a weak attempt, then all of the sudden a soft voice whispered in a demanding tone. _"Chaval Al Hazman!" __( Don't waste your time! ) _Even though she couldn't understand what was being said, the threat that had sounded in the words that where spoken barely above a whisper had been obvious and for a second she wondered if it was the pounding headache that clouded her understanding or if the person had really spoken in a different language. A hand placed against her shoulder held her down. She cautiously opened her eyes and saw a woman sitting besides her, squatting and holding her down with one hand while she held her eyes trained on the surroundings. Fires where burning in multiple places within her eyesight and Jen wondered why she couldn't remember what had happened.

Then it dawned on her the words that where spoken to her even though they had been in a hushed tone they had sounded Arabic. Her mouth turned bone dry and she tried to swallow frantically. She wanted to fight the woman but she seemed to be able to hold her in place leaning against the wall with merely one hand. Suddenly she raised her gun, turned on the knee that she had firmly planted on the ground besides Jen and when she found her target she shot a couple of times. Jen followed her aim and saw a man drop to the ground.

"Can you walk?" The woman asked her still whispering.

Jen looked up at her and it dawned on her how young the woman looked, barely in her twenties if she even was that old, it seemed as if it was the most ludicrous thought she could have at this particular moment but she did notice it. But never the less she seemed very experienced. "Who are you?" Jen asked her. She wanted to know who she was dealing with at least the woman owed her that much even though her revealing who she was might sign Jen death sentence. You never knew when dealing with terrorists but often if they captured you it wasn't likely that you would survive long. Once they had used you for their own good they would discard you like yesterdays trash preferably in a place frequented by fellow Americans so that it would be more shocking. All of these thoughts ran through her mind clouding her judgment between the moment that she asked the question and the answer that the woman gave her.

"It does not matter." She said as she scanned the environment before she got up. Pulling Jen with her, at that moment when she tried to push herself up from the dirt an excruciating pain went through her arm. She rested against the wall behind her and as she stared down she noticed the blood covered rags of what used to be her jacket she breathed in erratically. "It is only a cut, you will survive."

A piece of her sleeve was bound around her arm keeping pressure on what she assumed to be a bullet hole. Adrenaline had been pumping through her veins and until she tried to use her arm she had not felt the pain. The other woman noticed what she looked at. "You are a lucky woman but we have to keep on moving." She said her voice thick with an accent, again it sounded Arabic.

She dragged Jen with her embracing her with one arm while she was holding on to a sniper rifle with the other hand. A couple of times she stopped and aimed for something in the distance. Jen was scarcely aware of what was going on around her and they had barely walked a couple of meters when her eyes fell onto the broken body of Christopher McCoy, dirt and blood covered him along with stones, pieces of iron and things she couldn't recognize because they where too bend out of shape. She tried to go in his direction but the woman held her back; she needed to help him but she was too weak to fight against the strong grip of the woman. She was in no way strong enough to convince the other women to go towards him. The woman looked at her, the dark eyes fixed. For a couple of seconds she didn't look at their surroundings but she was completely focused on Jen when she spoke the words clearly; "He is dead."

Jen was shocked, she felt sick her knees felt weak; a nauseating feeling crept up from her stomach. She wanted to give into the feeling but she knew that there was no time to waste if they wanted to make it out alive. Never the less she couldn't hold herself up any longer, she dragged the other woman down with her. Tears streamed down her cheeks she couldn't believe this was happening. This shouldn't be happening, they where finally acting on their feelings and now he was taken away from her. Hearing the words 'he's death' chilled her heart, it was as if those simple words had ripped away a piece and left her to bleeding. She reached out her hand towards him, she wanted to touch him. She wanted to make sure that he was really dead.

"If you want to survive you work with me." Ziva said with a demanding tone of voice. Jen sat there, not even aware of the shooting around them. Or the fires burning after the explosions, lightning up the whole environment in an eerie orange color. Tears streaked down her face, as she sobbed unstoppable. "Listen you have a choice, either I leave you here and I can guarantee you that you will not survive this day, or you might but it will not be pretty. Or you get up and come with me. Now!" She said clearly before she raised her rifle and aimed, at first Jen was afraid that her last seconds on earth had been wasted away but then the woman adjusted her aim and shot a couple of times. Hearing the screams Jen knew that she had hit the imposed target.

**More to follow! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

She then turned and dragged Jen back to her feet and supported her as they walked as quickly as they could leaving the horrendous scene behind. Jen was still crying silent tears, she followed the other woman's lead without thinking about it. There was no time to think, she was being dragged away by the woman towards the woods behind the airport strip.

The tires of the four wheel drive skidded on the gravel road, the woman was driving recklessly. Either she knew exactly where she was going and had driven down this road at least a thousand times before or she was taking a huge risk. A life and death kind of risk. The woman checked the mirrors more times then she should and Jen wished that she would keep her eyes on the road in front of her.

She was scared, she had no idea what was going on, who the woman was and what was going to happen to her. Since they where alone in the car she though that this might be the only time to ask questions. She had calmed down considerably, dark tear tracks had stained her cheeks. She didn't want to think about what she had seen; Christopher was death. And she never got to tell him just how much she really loved him. Killed by the arms dealer LeGrenouille that he had so desperately tried to catch, he had lost the fight. She cried silent tears for Christopher; sweet, kind and caring Christopher a man that when she first met him had been so different from most man on the special forces. He was a man that would be a perfect father and caring husband, a man that she had not even been able to imagine in the full gear of a special ops operative screaming out orders until she had seen him do it. Christopher was a man with two sides, the very driven special agent and on the other hand the caring man any woman would dream about.

After Paris and Leroy Jethro Gibbs she had promised herself that she would never again fall for a fellow agent especially not a team member, it was too much of a risk. But with a man like Christopher, who could blame her for doing just that. She had for seen a future with him, a future that would never take place because of an arms dealer who doesn't care who dies as long as he receives his money. She knew that it was a possibility in their job that one might die because of the kind of special ops that they worked and the danger that it brought with it. But it was always unexpected, especially after this morning when she had left him in her bed to receive the details for tonights' stake out. She blocked the thoughts that entered her minds eye; Christopher and her, the last night they would ever spend together.

She watched her surroundings tried to figure out where they where going, but the darkness prevented her from seeing anything besides that they where in the middle of nowhere.

She shifted her position, carefully not to bump her left arm against the car seat, which she was supporting with her other arm. She watched the woman who was intensely gazing at the dusty sand road ahead. "Who are you?"

She quietly asked the woman barely above a whisper and when she didn't get an answer she thought that the woman hadn't heard the question and she was about to re-ask it when the woman started to speak. It took Jen a couple of minutes before she could understand what she said her accent was thick and she spoke softly. "Ziva David, Mossad."

Jen sighed in relief if that was true then there might be a chance that she was not taken hostage and that she could potentially survive this. "You're Mossad?" Jen questioned the woman, realizing what she had said and how wrong the woman could take her comment. She turned to the woman to the best of her abilities. "I didn't mean it like that, what I wanted to ask was why was Mossad at the airport." She couldn't help but look at the woman and realize how young she seemed to be, but she knew that in Israel women as well as men would join the army at the age of eighteen. If she had joined Mossad right after the army she could be twenty, maybe twenty two at the max.

Ziva glanced at her but didn't say a thing, there was an eerie silence for at least a couple of minutes before she looked at her again quickly before she averted her glance to the road again or what was supposed to be the road anyway. "Probably the same thing you where doing there with your team. Trying to prevent Hamas from receiving the weapons and explosives they so desperately need for their suicide bombings." She said her voice had a thick accent, she blinked her eyes against the tears that where threatening to spill. She hardly ever showed her feelings and she would certainly not show them to a stranger. Even though she had been fighting Hamas since it happened, the bitterness about what had happened to Tali had not lessened, Tali had been one of the thousands of innocent victims.

"So you knew we were there?" Jen asked Ziva wondering why Mossad had not sought contact with the Anti Terrorism Task Force if they had known that they where working for the same cause. And frankly Jen was surprised that the ATTF apparently had no idea that Mossad was involved as well. They probably didn't even know that Mossad knew what they where working on, evidently Mossad had better intel then the ATTF. But at the same time, Ziva had been caught in the same explosions and shootings as her team had been.

"Yes, we did." She answered curtly. Her intel had told her a lot about the ATTF that was working in the area, Mossad was known for their intel, which was usually far more accurate then other agencies' intel.

"Where are you taking me?"

"A safe house." Again she received a curt answer from the dark haired woman. They reached a small town and drove through it, it only took them a couple of minutes.

"Where is the rest of your team, or was this a solo mission?" Jen asked, she was pretty sure that it couldn't be a solo mission. It was to high profile to make it a solo mission and it would be too dangerous and irresponsible.

"We got separated." Was all Ziva said.

They left the town behind them and disappeared into no man's land. Another fifteen minutes later Ziva stopped the car in front of a barn. "Stay here, I will be back soon." She got out of the car and opened the barn doors. Soon she came back, she parked the car inside the barn.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Ziva helped her to remove the belt and get out of the car, she gestured to Jen to follow her to a well hidden hatch in the back of the barn. Ziva led her down the stairs and motioned for her to sit down on one of the chairs placed around the small table. She left and came back a couple of minutes later with a bowl of water and bandages. She kneeled down in front of Jen and removed the piece of cloth that she had wrapped around Jen's arm as a tourniquet. "A piece of metal from the exploding bomb under one of the trucks must have hit you." Ziva said; the most words she had spoken since she had taken Jen with her.

"Why did you take me with you?" Jen asked Ziva, she winced when Ziva cleaned the nasty cut on her upper arm with a piece of bandage and water that she had retrieved from one of the boxes in the small room.

"You looked like you needed the help." Ziva answered. "You where unconscious but not badly hurt. Unlike some of the other men I saw, yes."

Jen looked at her confused, was that a question or not she wondered while she looked at Ziva. Her dark eyes didn't show much emotion when she started to speak again; "I checked your wounds, and your vitals you where strong enough and coming around. I knew that Hamas and arms dealers where about to bust into the scene and they would not have mercy on you." Ziva knew exactly what would happen when Hamas found Jen unconscious, one thing was sure she would have been better off death if that had been the case.

Ziva looked at her, contemplating if she should ask the question that was on her mind; "Who was that man?" She asked bluntly, she had seen people get upset with team members dying on a mission but she had never seen someone loose control like that. She could see in Jen's eyes that there was something more between them then just being team members.

"He was my partner." Jen stated, her voice flat her face motionless. She hoped that Ziva would not ask further and that this answer would satisfy Ziva.

"Just a partner." Ziva questioned her, she knew that there had been more to it then Jen was letting on. She could see the way that she looked when she said the word partner she had hesitated. The hesitation had only lasted for a couple of seconds, maybe even less but for someone who was as trained as Ziva registering slight changes in people's behavior where part of her training and was she was able to see it and she knew that she had been right. Whether or not Jen would admit to it, she already knew the answer.

Jen nodded teary eyed, before she diverted her eyes to the floor next to them. Ziva bandaged up Jen's arm telling her that it had been a cut and that she should keep it clean and that she would renew the bandages the next day. The cut was fortunately not too deep and she didn't need stitches, though if she had needed them Ziva would have been able to give them to her as well. It was part of her basic medical training that she had at Mossad.

Jen hissed and tried to pull back when Ziva cleaned the cut on her forehead with a piece of cloth. "No, he was more then that." Ziva nodded curtly and bandaged up Jen's head. She told Jen that she would be back in a little while and walked away, she cleaned out the bowl, then she brought a glass of water over to Jen and handed it to her and handed her two painkillers.

"That is a nasty lump on your head, along with that cut. You might have a mild concussion."

Jen brought her hand up to the back of her head where she felt the bump; "I think you mean bump." She said without even noticing that she was correcting her.

Ziva guided Jen to a small bed in the corner, told her to lie down and rest for a while. The rummaged around the room, and handed Jen a glass of water. "There is not much here, but it is enough to keep us safe for a couple of days."

Jen sat up and sipped from the water; "Why would we stay here for a couple of days. My team is in the area, I can contact them and they can pick me up." She said as she rubbed her temples, just below the bandage that Ziva had wrapped around her head to make sure that the cut on her forehead wouldn't start bleeding again.

"Because we where followed when we left the airport. It is better if we stay low for a couple of days." Ziva said as she sat down in the chair her rifle placed next to her on the table. "Get some sleep." She told Jen, in a demanding manner.

She complied, rolled over and lied down facing the wall. She pulled the blanket over her body but it couldn't keep her from shaking. Every time she closed her eyes she thought of what had happened and she saw the images flash in front of her eyes. She cried silent tears, her shoulders shaking as she tried to hide her pain.

Ziva watched the woman, her back turned to her as she desperately tried to hide the tears and emotions. It was never easy to loose someone you love, but seeing their broken bodies lying lifelessly staring at the dark sky was even more horrible. Ziva knew, she had seen Tali's lifeless body. Her father didn't want her to see it, but she had seen the crime scene pictures taken by some Mossad officers.

She couldn't take it any longer, she got up and moved towards the bed. Silently she touched the womans' shoulder when she didn't react Ziva moved into the bed behind her. Wrapping her arms around the shaking body, as she tried to soothe the older woman. It was obvious that the man had meant a great deal to her. Ziva stayed with her all night holding the woman until she finally fell into a fitful sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

For four days they where together, bunched up in the small room. Ziva had explained that whenever Mossad did a mission they made sure that they had a safe house like this one in the area. It was well stocked so that a couple of people could survive for a couple of days when needed.

They had both contacted their own teams to let them know that they where alive and well and that they would make contact with their respective organizations when it was safe for them to return. Being in a small room and being the only companion the other person had they talked a lot. About anything and everything, they learned a lot about each other. Sometimes Jen thought that she was telling way too much, especially because Ziva was Mossad. But on the other hand talking was really all they could do.

It surprised both Ziva and Jen how easy they could connect with each other. When they where tired of discussing their lives Ziva taught Jen some Hebrew words and phrases. It took their minds of off their situation even if it was just for a little while.

"Look at me." Jen demanded the men in front of her. "All the injuries I have, where sustained when the bomb that killed Special Agent McCoy exploded. Part of the metal that flew around cut my arm and my forehead. The bruises and the bump where from the wall that I was slammed into when I ran past the truck." Jen explained to her superiors. "I have not been tortured nor have I been questioned, I was safe during the entire time that I and Mossad Officer David where together."

The men stared at her, they didn't say a thing, one of them was jotting some information down on a notepad. "You have been away for four days, am I right?"

"Yes, that is correct." Jen answered. "But in those for days nothing has been compromised. I haven't told any details which she didn´t already know. Mossad knew that we where there, working on the same mission we where working on. They knew we where there, but our intel did not tell us Mossad was there when we where briefed before the mission."

One of the men huffed in disbelief, Jen stared at him. He might not agree with what had happened but he could at least act civil while she told them what had happened.

"I was unconscious when Officer David found me. She took my vitals, she told me that I was coming around at that point. She bandaged up my arm to the best she could in that situation and kept me safe until I was responsive enough to leave the scene." Jen looked at the men one by one, this was a mind game she knew that and she shouldn't show them fear. Especially not when she wanted to become one of them one day. "Without Ziva David I would not have been here today. What she did was beyond what she was supposed to do. She could have ignored me being there and moved on, it was not her job to make sure that I would be safe. If she had wanted it, she could have killed me herself she is a trained assassin for Mossad."

"Why?" The man asked her again.

"You should ask her why, but I think that it might have been because we work for the same cause." Jen shrugged; "Mossad knew that we where there, they suspected that we where in over our heads and they send out a team to back us up if we needed it. In doing so they put their own people in danger to protect us. Officer David brought me to a safe house because we where being followed for the first part of the trip. She feared that the car had been recognized and choose to go to the safe house instead of bringing me back to our base camp. She didn't want to put anyone here or at Mossad's base camp in danger. That is why we waited a couple of days before we returned to our respective teams."

"Do you know for a fact that this is the way things happened or is this what she told you happened?"

"Due to what I had seen before we left the scene and the pain from the cuts, the blood loss from the one on my arm and especially on my forehead and the mild concussion I was pretty out of it." Jen explained; "She couldn't remember that she had seen someone follow them but she remembered the way that Ziva had watched in the mirrors frantically and her driving manners. She had only relaxed when we reached the village east from the airport."

She leaned forward and took a sip from the glass of water. "Officer David did everything to keep us safe and she was racing to the safe house because she knew that she could hide the car there. And there would be enough supplies and place to keep us hidden for a couple of days without anyone in the proximity realizing that we where there."

The interview went on for hours, back and forth one of the man would ask her a question and she would answer to the best of her knowledge. Though some things where a blur to her, she couldn't be 100 sure about what had happened right after the bomb exploded. When they couldn't come up with more questions for her to answer they send her away and asked her to send Ziva in. She had been waiting all this time in the hallway of the American Embassy, as they had requested.

Jen opened the door and stepped up to Ziva; "They asked you to join them now, it will not be easy, are you sure you want to do this?" Ziva asked the younger woman.

"Yes, my father allowed me to join the ATTF, because he thinks that it might be viable if we work together." Ziva smiled; "We are after all fighting for the same cause, and I believe that your task force could use a liaison officer from Mossad." Ziva added confidently; she nodded curtly and opened the doors into the conference room. She stepped into the room and shook hands with the men in front of her before she sat down in the chair across from the ATTF leaders.

She was ready for any questions they wanted to ask her. She could tell them what she had done and what her reasons had been behind her actions. She had nothing to hide; besides that she was sure that they would see that when she had told her side of what had happened that night and the following days.


	6. Chapter 6

_Thank you to the people who took the time to leave a review. A review is a fanfiction writers only payment, and it is much appriciated. Thank you so much._

**Chapter 6**

When Jen had told her superiors about Ziva David they had asked her to bring her in. Jen had asked them if they would consider Ziva David as a new member of her team. She knew that she trusted the younger woman but convincing her superiors had proven to be more difficult then she had expected. They had interrogated her for hours and when they where content with what she had told them, they had asked her to bring Ziva in. Ziva had received the same treatment; maybe even worse then she had gotten herself. After all they needed to establish if she was being true to their mission or if she was just a spy. They where cautiously when they took on a new member, you could never really be 100 sure if people really where who they appeared to be. After all they where well trained specialists in their line of duty. The ATTF was after all an elite team. Who where fighting terrorists all over the world.

Due to that fact they where already working together with agents from several big agencies like MI6 and the AIVD. Having someone from Mossad around would make a lot of things easier, especially when it came to gaining intel from Arabic countries. Since nine eleven it had been extremely difficult to gain intel in those countries because they where going up against terrorist who mostly came from that part of the world. And Ziva could make a huge difference for them, because she would be able to gain the intel from Mossad and her skills in Arabic languages where also of great value.

Ziva and Jen became close friends they worked together on most cases during their time together in the Anti Terrorism Task Force. Jen never got a chance to have revenge on LeGrenouille, that was the one thing she regretted from that period of her life. Each and every time he seemed to get away just in time but Jen swore that's he would one day be able to retaliate Christopher's death.

No matter how you looked at it, both women had learned a lot from each other. They shared a connection which was hard to come by these days. There was an understanding between the two of them; most of the time they knew what the other person meant when they had barely said half a word.

And though Ziva did not show that she didn't want to part their ways, Jen knew that she hated it but she had been called back to rejoin Mossad by her father. And since he was the Deputy Director of Mossad there really wasn't much she could do. She hugged Jen curtly and turned around, she swung her bag over her shoulder and walked towards the airplane back to Tel Aviv. At the top of the stairs she turned around, she nodded at Jen before she stepped inside. The warm desert breeze of Cairo swept through her flaming red hair, a couple of strands got caught in the tear tracks that ran down her face. She waited until the airplane had disappeared as a dot in the distance. Her arms had been crossed in front of her chest as she watched the plane leave. It was to prevent herself from waving at Ziva, she hadn't said much to preclude herself from asking Ziva to stay.

That had been the last time Jen Shepard had seen Ziva David, the young woman that had despite the risk saved her life. Jen knew that if it wasn't for her that she would not be alive anymore and now it was her turn to help Ziva.

It had been years since Ziva left, they had stayed in contact through emails and sometimes they would call. Jen had always dreaded the times when she didn't hear from Ziva in several months only to find out that she had been on an undercover mission. But from now on they would be together again, working on the same team, though this time she would be Ziva's boss which would give their friendship a completely new dimension but at the same time she knew that she could count on Ziva.

Not that Ziva was in a life threatening situation at the moment but she needed to get away from Mossad, she had made that clear in their last telephone conversation a couple of weeks ago if only for a while she had said. She had told Jen that she had been undercover for six months and that it had been a hard time, she didn't tell her any details but she had made it clear that she wanted out. And since Jen had recently become the Director of NCIS it was within her power to hire Ziva as a liaison Officer, and maybe later on for a more permanent bases if that was what Ziva wanted. She smiled as she remembered the details of their first meeting vividly. Ziva was someone who certainly had a special place in her heart. And that had been one of the reasons why she hadn't hesitated to ask Ziva to join her.

She smiled when she saw the young woman approach her when she got out of the elevator. "Shalom Jen." Ziva said, walking up to her. Jen looked at the woman, she looked exactly like she did all those years ago when they met. Wearing cargo pants, beige boots and an olive jacket over a tank top. She looked hardly any older then she had done when they first met, but then again Ziva was only 28. And though that was incredibly young, she had a lot of experience when it came to her job, more then most of the Special Agents in NCIS in fact.

"Shalom." They spoke at the same time, both smiling as they kissed each other on the cheeks. Jen saw Gibbs and Tony talking to each other at Gibbs' desk, it was obvious what they where talking about. She knew that Gibbs couldn't stand it when he was being kept in the dark about things. Usually he was the team leader and he would find out one way or another, but this time Jen was the one in charge. And maybe that was the thing that hurt Gibbs the most.

Of course Tony knew who Ziva was, Jen was sure that he had been asking Ziva all kinds of questions while Ziva and he had been alone. And Gibbs on his turn wanted to know everything as well. At the same time Tony wanted an explanation for Jen's presence at NCIS, and it had been obvious that Gibbs knew more about her. Jen smiled as she watched them, before she returned her attention towards Ziva. She had missed this woman, more then she would ever admit.

**The end!**


End file.
